Klobuchar Opening Statement at Senate Committee on Rules and Administration Hearing on U.S. Capitol Police

WASHINGTON-At a Senate Committee on Rules and Administration hearing titled "Oversight of the U.S. Capitol Police," U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration with oversight over Capitol Police, led the discussion with testimony from Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police Tom Manger about the progress made since Manger was appointed Chief in July 2021 and the Department's preparations for the upcoming Joint Session of Congress to certify the results of the election on January 6th and the inauguration on January 20th.

At today's hearing, Manger shared:

• The Department has made significant security improvements in recent years, including enhanced planning, improved handling of intelligence, and ensuring officers' access to needed training and equipment.
• Congress has made two key improvements to the Department's ability to handle major security challenges at the Capitol: (1) enabling the Department to reimburse local law enforcement partners to provide additional manpower, and (2) empowering Capitol Police chief to request emergency assistance from the National Guard directly, the result of bipartisan legislation led by Chairwoman Klobuchar and former Senator Blunt.
• Notably, the Department has implemented all 103 recommendations that the Capitol Police Inspector General issued in a series of reports after January 6th in addition to many measures recommended in the bipartisan security report issued by Chairwoman Klobuchar and Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Rob Portman (R-OH).
• The Department has prioritized hiring under Chief Manger's leadership and now has 350 more sworn officers than it did four years ago. Chief Manger has hired 315 officers this year, exceeding his goal of hiring 280 new officers each year.

This was the eighth hearing on the Capitol Police that the Rules Committee has held under Chairwoman Klobuchar - including two hearings with the Homeland Security Committee and the first joint hearing of the Capitol Police Board since 1945.

Klobuchar and then former Ranking Member Blunt led the Capitol Police Emergency Assistance Act - which was signed into law in 2021 after passing the Senate and House unanimously - to empower the Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police to request the assistance of the District of Columbia National Guard or federal law enforcement agencies in emergencies without prior approval of the Capitol Police Board. The law reflects a recommendation of the bipartisan security report that was released by the Rules and Homeland Security Committees.

Klobuchar and Ranking Member Deb Fischer (R-NE) led the Architect of the Capitol Appointment Act - which was signed into law in December 2023 - to strengthen congressional oversight of the Architect of the Capitol by empowering a congressional commission to appoint and remove the Architect by a bipartisan, majority vote. Klobuchar and Fischer led this bipartisan, bicameral legislation with Representatives Bryan Steil (R-WI) and Joe Morelle (D-NY), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration.

A rough transcript of Klobuchar's full opening statement is available below. Download a recording HERE.

Sen. Klobuchar: Good afternoon. I call to order this hearing on oversight of the Capitol Police. As noted, this is our final Rules Committee hearing this Congress, and it is a fitting one as so much of the work that we have done, that I have done with Senator Fischer, as well as before with Senator Blunt, has been focused on public safety, especially over the last four years.

I would like to thank Chief Manger, who came to us out of retirement. Thank you for the work you have done to support the Department's workforce and to make the needed security improvements we're here to discuss today. I'd also like to again express my gratitude to the brave men and women of the Capitol Police for the work that they do every day, and thank you, Gus, for your leadership of the union, and thank you to all of those involved in public safety.

I'd like to thank Senator Fischer for her partnership in the last two years. Deb, I have appreciated the opportunity to work with you. We have tried so hard to, I think, positively, realize that this Committee's jurisdiction is a little different than some of the others, and it's more important than ever that we work together, and if we have disagreements, we work them out, and that we, I think Roy always used to say, are the mayors of the Capitol, and we get a lot of interesting requests as our wonderful staffs. And I specifically want to thank Elizabeth Farrar, my staff director, for her incredible work.

I'd like to congratulate our incoming chair, Leader McConnell, as well as, I believe, Senator Padilla, who I think is going to be taking over our side in this Committee, and to thank the Rules Committee members for their work. We welcome our newest member Senator Schiff.

This hearing is a time to look at the progress the Capitol Police have made in the last four years- under the leadership of the Chief since July of 2021. In that time, the Department has made necessary enhancements impacting all aspects of its work - including many recommendations in the original bipartisan security report that came out of this Committee, as well as Homeland Security. One of these is the legislation that I led with former Senator Blunt, which is now law, to allow the Capitol Police to immediately request assistance from the National Guard in an emergency.

Critically, the Department has greatly improved under Chief Manger its handling of intelligence and how it shares information with rank and file officers, including by creating a centralized Intelligence Bureau …prioritized operational planning by requiring plans for all large-scale events… and taken steps to ensure officers have the training and equipment to do their jobs. Notably, all 103 recommendations that the Department's Inspector General issued in the series of reports after January 6 have now been implemented.

I think we've had eight hearings on oversight of the Capitol Police. We have gone through the 103 recommendations and gone through the numbers, and I truly appreciate the public transparency and accountability we also had with Congressman Steil the first joint oversight hearing since 1945 on the security in the Capitol. And so we're really pleased with that as well, and your responsiveness, as well as the Sergeant at Arms Gibson.

Here are some other examples of what this progress has looked like over the past four years. We know we have challenges, but I do think it's important to acknowledge the progress. The Department now has an additional 360 sworn officers on duty, from 1,842 to 2,202.

There has been a 60 percent increase in the number of threat assessment agents. Four years ago, the Department did not maintain a dedicated Civil Disturbance Unit program, and today, it has six platoons totaling more than 225 officers. And while only 25 percent of officers had access to riot gear on January 6, something we will never forget, locked on a bus, now every officer has this equipment.

None of this would be possible without the officers who stand in defense of the Capitol every day and who have risen to the occasion as various threats have confronted Members of Congress at the Capitol and beyond. In recent years, these men and women have worked significant overtime, had vacations canceled, family events canceled while the Department worked to add more officers. We thank them deeply for their service. I commend the Chief's commitment to ensuring the Department has the personnel it needs - including offering hazard pay, retention bonuses, and tuition support - and for exceeding the goal of hiring 280 additional officers this year. That was the goal but instead hired 315 officers. And thank you again, Gus, for being such a strong advocate for the officers.

We owe it to these officers to show them that they have our full support. This includes continued funding for the Howard Liebengood Center for Wellness, and I would like to recognize the dedication of Dr. Serena Liebengood, the widow of Officer Howard Liebengood, or "Howie," as he was known by so many of you, the 15-year veteran of the Department who tragically died in the days after January 6, and for whom the Center is named. Since its founding, the Center has started a chaplain program, created 24/7 support resources, and trained over 50 officers as peer support specialists.

At the same time, we look at all of the good work that's been done, we must be clear-eyed about emerging demands on the Department's expanding operations that we need to confront head on. In addition to the security challenges we have seen here at the Capitol, there has been a disturbing and unprecedented rise in threats targeting members of Congress from both parties, and the ongoing volume and severity of those threats has posed new challenges for the Capitol police and local police departments across the country. The Department reported over 8,000 of these threats just last year, and we expect to exceed that this year. This is four times over the number that we have received in not that far away years of the past. Members have been targeted with bomb threats, subjects of cyber attacks, had their homes swatted, and more.

We must keep striving to ensure the Capitol police can respond effectively to risks to Member safety, including prioritizing hiring of additional threat assessment agents and building on efforts through the Department's field offices and agreements with local law enforcement to ensure Members are safe beyond the Capitol Complex.

Finally, as we look ahead, I know work is well underway to prepare for the events that will take place at the Capitol: the Joint Session of Congress to certify the results of the election on January 6 this coming year and also, of course, the inauguration that Deb and I are working on together with the Joint Inaugural Committee.

Both events have been designated as National Special Security Events, which will provide federal agency resources to support the Capitol Police. While we won't get into law enforcement details today, it is crucial that the Department is ready to support these events that are at the very heart of our democracy - and I look forward to hearing the Chief's comments on these efforts.

Before I turn it over to Senator Fischer, I would like to make a few remarks to recognize what we have gotten done on the Committee in the last few years. Even beyond the major law enforcement changes and the hiring of Chief Manger, what may be our most lasting contribution to the Senate and the Country will be on display next month when we convene to certify the results of the election in line with the significant reforms to the Electoral Count Act, which passed in this Committee on a bipartisan vote of 14-1 and will ensure the will of the voters prevails in this and in future elections. And we will do so with key security improvements in place thanks in large part to Chief Manger and Sergeant at Arms General Karen Gibson.

Beyond this work, we passed bipartisan legislation into law. We led this bill to improve accountability and empower Congress to appoint and remove the Architect of the Capitol. That was a major change. The President had always been able to do that. I'm not going to go into the issues of the past, but we were very pleased to get that authority. We should own this, and we should, as we just did, made a decision across party lines and across House and Senate and joined together to appoint our new architect, Tom Austin, with unanimous, bipartisan and bicameral support.

During my time at the Committee, we have taken on a whole host of issues to improve the work for the Senate, for those who work and visit here - reopening the buildings after the pandemic… reforming the outdated process of reporting and handling sexual harassment claims on Capitol Hill… and making closed captioning available for all Senate committee hearings.

We worked to ensure that people visiting the Capitol see more statues of women. It's not just about what paintings and statues you take away, it's what statues and paintings you put up. We were really pleased to work on a bipartisan basis to get the new statues with Senators Murkowski, Collins, and Sinema, of two former trailblazing Supreme Court Justices, Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and we doubled the number of rooms named after women in the Senate. Okay, I think there was just like zero before, but now we've doubled it all, right? We also have the bust of the author of the Dred Scott decision removed, and it will be replaced with one of Justice Thurgood Marshall.

When our restaurant workers unionized, we made sure that they had a fair contract, and Senator Blunt and I worked together to update the rules. One of my favorite fun things that we did was ensure that babies can come on the Senate floor. When I promised Senator Duckworth I would get it done, and that was a proud day when she brought that little baby Maile Pearl, all six pounds of her, onto the floor, wheeling her in on her wheelchair, change finally, on the Senate floor.

And, of course, we have not lost sight of the fact that we must protect our free and fair elections so that people can make their voices heard in our democracy. This is a commitment that we must carry forward on this Committee.

I'm grateful to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who I've worked with to get this done. I especially want to thank Senator Fischer and her great staff, and I look forward to working with them in whatever capacity at their new jobs. And I want to thank her very much for her leadership as well. Thank you.

###

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.